Consumers are acquiring, managing and using digital media on multiple consumer electronic devices. Network media sources include a service provider's legacy video plant, the Internet, retail rental locations (e.g., physical DVDs), and the home network. A home network typically has consumer electronics (CE) devices such as set top boxes, DVD players, personal computers (PCs), game consoles, portable media devices, and mobile phones. Standards are evolving for content delivery, in which content portability may be achieved and made interoperable through the use of compatible devices and other video internetworking technologies. For example, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is an international, cross-industry collaboration of consumer electronics, computing industry and mobile device companies. Members of DLNA develop a concept of wired and wireless interoperable networks where digital content such as photos, music, and videos can be shared through consumer electronics, PCs, and mobile devices in and beyond the home. The organization seeks to deliver an interoperability framework and design guidelines that become open industry standards. Current guidelines expand the capabilities of the DLNA-defined network to include more device classes and functional capabilities, including printers, mobile devices, controllers, uploaders and downloaders. The guidelines also include specifications for digital rights management.
While several devices, including media players, may communicate through a first protocol, such as DLNA, other devices, such as webcams often are not capable of being controlled through the first protocol. Moreover, traditional methods for controlling webcams and other media capture devices require consumers to install or initiate a specific interface to control the media capture device. For example, many webcams require a consumer to install a user interface on a computer device, such as a PC, which the consumer must load into memory to control the media capture device. Alternatively, the consumer may have to load a browser (such as an html browser) into memory, type in a specific IP address for the camera, and then manually control the camera. Often, these approaches require a separate computer device or browser to be implemented, require a device (such as a PC) to be powered with an application to be loaded in memory, and/or are not user friendly.